Share what you are thankful for today! Get in the gratitude habit. I started sharing thanks with a friend several years ago to see if would give us each some insight into what we value and what makes us smile and contented. I loved being able to share what I was grateful for and looked forward to hearing what my friend was thankful for.Share something you are thankful for in the comments. Take the #JanuaryGratitudeChallenge. Tweet your gratitude by using the hashtag for a RT this month!

Quote of the week

"Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior's world." - Pema Chodron

Thursday, January 7, 2016

It's January 7th and we will be taking down all of our Christmas decorations today. I am thankful to have our Christmas tree's lights and that wonderful pine smell! Today I am thankful for getting to spend some time with my daughters. I am also thankful to be feeling better after having a cold for the past few days!

Thanks to my daughter Liz who brought some hot tea with honey and lemon. We enjoyed watching the dvd Spy. I managed to laugh and sneeze through the movie under a comfy blanket on the couch.

Thanks to my daughter Becky who brought me to work and picked me up! Feels good to be driven around after being a taxi mom after all of these years.

Thanks to Becky and Liz for joining me for lunch out today. We had fun sharing a meal and good conversation.

Thanks to my daughter Liz for making dinner tonight while I was working. It was so great to come home to spaghetti with meat sauce. Yum!! Love a home cooked meal from my daughter. It may be one of the best simple joys ever.

Would love to hear a family member your thankful for today. Who made your day a little extra special. Small kindnesses make my day!

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Happy 2016! The new year is filled with promise, a fresh start and lofty goals. A time to reflect and steer our lives on a course for new adventures. I am always thoughtful this time of year. I enjoy looking back on the previous years adventures. I love looking at all the pictures from my phone that I have taken. They remind me of the places, people and beauty I've seen. I must admit I enjoyed 2015! I was having such a good time I got out of the habit of journaling about the good things that I am grateful for each day.

I need a reboot! I've decided to start get back to basics and share what I am grateful for. I encourage you to go along with me on this journey!

You can join in the fun in January by tweeting what your grateful using the #JanuaryGratitudeChallenge. I will be tweeting gratitude prompts during the month of January to help you share your simple joys! Join in the fun by taking a daily gratitude break and share something your thankful for. I will be retweeting your thanks so we can all enjoy and learn what we appreciate. You could also share a picture of what you were grateful for.

Developing a gratitude habit will help you focus on what is good in your life and help you appreciate the beauty that is available to us if we just take the time to look! By practicing gratitude we are able to enjoy the present moment. We can not control what happens in any given day and we can control our reaction to it,

When I started Sharing Thanks several years ago I listed 4 gratitudes of what I was thankful for on any given day. Today I am going to share what I was grateful for on Sunday and Monday. I had such a lovely Sunday night that I am most grateful for.

I was thankful to enjoy a beuatiful night with family friends in the Flatiron district in New York City. We went to see a great off-broadway play at the Baruch Performing Arts Center called "Double-it - a living room circus" These hip circus asian performers had amazing energy, agility, and warmth! We loved the lighted suits and the cool rhythms with innovative choreography and martial arts displays. I have been enjoying being a member of Theater Manias goldclub and have the priviledge to see many off-broadway plays affordably. I love going to the theater and I am amazed and energized by seeing new ideas brought to life. Every show is a different show because it is a live performance! We laughed and left the theater smiling.

Is there anything better than a Lavazza coffee at Eately? I love the heart shape in my coffee foam. I got to visit the new Nutella cafe and also enjoyed a gelato. My daughter's friend loved the Nutella filled crepe! We also enjoyed seeing the installation art at Madison park. I love the Flatiron district and this area of Manhattan. It was fun taking our friends to Eately for the first time. The loved seeing all the Italian delicacies and exploring this cool venue.

I am thankful to play Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique tonight. The South Shore Symphony had our first rehearsal of this major work. It's a rich, difficult work with beautiful melodies. I am so fortunate to be able to play with such a talented group of musicians. I love leaving rehearsal with all this new music swirling around my head.

I was thankful to have a productive day today mixed with some art and topping it off with hot tea with my daughters and good friends. I was able to run some errands, and tackle some insurance forms, and solve problems. It was the first get back to work day. I enjoyed giving a few music lessons and was thankful that my students practiced during vacation! After rehearsal I was invited to have coffee talk at Dunkin Donuts with good friends any my daughters. I had a hot cup of tea and ended the day trading stories and smiles with friends and family.

I hope you will join in on the twitter fun for the #JanuaryGratitudeChallenge or you can always share what your thankful for in the comments below. Have a Happy 2016. You can have a great grateful year by flexing that gratitude muscle!!

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

I am thankful for this warm and springlike December. I have been enjoying hiking in my favorite local parks. I love the bleak greys we often see this time of year. I filmed this short 30 second video from the pier at Norman Levy State Park. The Bay was calm and the sun's light was dancing on the water. I enjoyed viewing the beauty and just breathing in the energy and breathing out my stress.
Use it to enjoy a small relaxation break

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Kind people make all of our lives better, sometimes with simple gestures that enhance our lives and bring smiles to our faces. Today I am giving thanks for the wonderful people in my life. I am trying to go back to the basics of why I started my sharing thanks blog. To share a few things everyday that I am grateful for and to encourage you to share your gratitudes in the comments, or email me at www.sharingthanks@gmail.com and I can repost them. In this season of light and giving let us give thanks to the people who bring us of tidings of joy.

I am thankful for my family. To my parents who taught me how to appreciate nature by taking us camping and on hikes. "Look at the Stars" is a mantra I have grown up with. They also taught me to work hard and play harder. The most important thing they have taught me was how to love and be loved.

I am thankful to my fellow musicians in the South Shore Symphony. I am lucky to get to play the Nutcracker this weekend with a local ballet company. I love playing the violin and creating harmonies with such a kind and professional group.

I am thankful to all of the people who make my day eaiser. To the folks at Dunkin Donuts who see me and make my iced coffee just the way I like it! Thanks to Ariel who leads a meditation group at our library. Doing mindfulness practice has enriched my life and helped me maintain calm during stressful situations.

To all of the writers, composers, performers, inventors, dreamers in the world. I am thankful for great books I have read and inspired me. I am currently reading Daniel Goleman's book "A Force For Good: The Dalai Lama's Vision of Our World"If all of us make a few small changes we can make a positive impact on our world. I love the theater, film, good television, concerts! Creative people tell stories that touch us and teach us.

Who are the angels in your life? Please thank someone who helped you today. Do something kind for someone today. We can all light up this world with KINDNESS, LOVE, and JOY!

Monday, August 3, 2015

I love the movies! I have been enjoying movie nights with my film major daughters this summer. I love the experience of seeing movies in the theater. Our family loves going to Regal movie theaters because they have amazing caption high tech SONY glasses. My youngest daughter is deaf and she loves seeing movies with the subtitles that only she sees with the SONY glasses. We have seen a lot of great movies this summer. I am thankful to share these movie moments with you.

We loved both Inside Out and the silliness of the Minions. Inside out takes us inside Riley's head as she learns to manage her feelings after the family moves her to the west coast. I loved Lewis Black's amazing anger voice. So happy to see a new imaginative animated film. I loved the depictions of Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger. I would have loved to see a Gratitude character. I wonderful ride into our amazing brains. We really need all of our emotions to live full, happy, and productive lives! Bravo Pixar for another great film!

If your in the mood to laugh your head off and enjoy supreme silliness go to see the MINIONS. I loved King Bob. It's amazing how much comedy these endearing minions manage to get with their nonsensical minimalist language. I loved the soundtrack from the 80s! Why is just saying Banana funny? Enjoy this nonsensical trek through time as the minions try to find new villains!

Spy Action and Superheroe Favorites

Melissa McCarthy Makes a Great Spy!

Paul Rudd a super hero with a Sense of Humor

Tom Cruise Hanging Off the Side of Plane!

These are my favorite action flicks this summer. And yes I have seen Avengers and Jurassic World, which did not make my summer favorite list. I loved Melissa McCarthy as a spy in Spy. This movie is hilarious and also addresses all the sexism woman face in the world! I loved the special gadgets they devised for her as this female version of James Bond. Who knows what I would do if I was Jude Law's field operative.

I was surprised to love the movie antman! I could not imagine the power of a small super hero. The movie completely beat my expectations. Paul Rudd was fantastic as an unlikely, deadpan funny Marvel hero. Micheal Douglas is great as the ant man's crazy inventor! Who knew ants could be so smart and powerful. Love this new weapon in Marvel's fun movie franchise.

I enjoyed seeing the newest Mission Impossible movie. Our family has a special thing for Mission Impossible as my daughter Liz got to play Brenda the spy in No Limits Theater Group's production of Mission Possible. I love the theme music from this franchise. Tom Cruise does his own stunts, and it was fun to see him hanging off the side of a plane and that's only the beginning of the movie. A great spy movie with lots of twists for Ethan Hunt's team to take down the Syndicate. Can't they cast more woman in these movies? This film has one great woman spy character and she is the only woman in the entire movie? I did like Alec Baldwin's performance as well as the great Jeremy Renner!

Summer Sleeper and Independent Movies

Meet These Amazing Tap Dancers from around the Globe

Great Performance from Nat Wolff from the old Naked Brothers Band

I was thankful to go to a screening of TapWorld at the East Village Cinemas recently. Before the screening I was treated to some wonderful tap dancing from 2 of the producers of this amazing documentary. I loved the rhythms and tap riffs in the movie. The personal stories on how tap dancing transformed peoples lives were riveting and heartfelt. This documentary will be on netflix soon. So if you missed seeing it at an independent film theater you can watch it on netflix. You can also watch youtube clips from their website Tap World Film. Enjoy these amazing dancers and their incredible stories.

I loved Paper Towns: a sweet high school movie adapted from John Green's book, "Paper Towns" It's a story about friendship and being a geek in high school. Great performance from Nat Wolff who is all grown up from the Naked Brothers Band. My daughter Liz loved watching and listening the Naked Brothers Band ten years ago! A movie with just a great story is rare today. I love films like this where there are no special effects, just a good story and nice performances from this young cast!

Enjoy these great summer films! Hope this post has made you smell the popcorn and given you some ideas on what to see on your next movie night with family or friends! Share your favorite movie that you saw this summer in the comments,

Friday, July 24, 2015

We had a small heat wave earlier this week. Temperatures were in the 90s! It was a hot summer day, and I was being a sloth and relaxing at home. I have been doing the Oprah and Deepak Chopra Manifesting Gratitude through grace meditation exercises. I don't like to watch TV during the day and I decided it was a good time to just sit and meditate to Day 4: Grace is replying. While I was meditating listening to Chopra's soothing voice, it started to rain. My daughter Liz was home and she said come outside. I thought she saw a rainbow? So I ran outside and it was a sun shower, raining hard. She was happily dancing in the rain. I joined her. The cool rain felt exhilarating! Its been a long time since I splashed in puddles. It was a joyful moment filled with Grace! After our water ballet in the rain, we both went in the house and changed into dry clothes. I was thankful to have shared this cool moment of joy with my daughter. What's helping you stay cool this summer? I would love to hear about a pure moment of joy that you experienced. Sharing these moments of simple grace is what makes life joyful!

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

I had an epiphany at my morning meditation class today. At the end of the class which is held at our local library I heard the sound of a dog barking. It turned out to be someone's cell phone ringtone. Sometimes my smart phone feels like a pavlovian dog. I jump everytime it rings, beeps, bells, and vibrates. We have all put ourselves on call 24/7 being available to the next facebook update, tweet, email, emergency, text, and phone call. When did we all become on call doctors to one another. The stress of being available to everyone all the time makes us jump when our phones vibrate!

I was thinking about what activities get me to turn off my phone. I turn off my phone for meditation class, for orchestra rehearsal, when I am at a play, or a movie. This got me thinking, I got that aha moment of clarity. I should turn off my phone when I am enjoying being out with my friends, at family gatherings, on my walks on the beach, or hikes in nature. So I can enjoy that beautiful white wildflower blooming without distraction. I want to enjoy that feeling of freedom.

I should enjoy more of these moments with out the constant updates. I can catch up electronically later. I need to stop letting my smart phone hyjack me of enjoying the NOW. Maybe I should plan a daily smart phone break.

I remember growing up as a kid - there were no cell phones. We went out and enjoyed our moments with friends. We had change for a payphone for an emergency. We went to the park, or the beach where no one could reach us. We enjoyed just spending time with each other, laughing, being outside being free. We were for that moment UNREACHABLE!

Start planning your UNREACHABLE smart phone break. Experience this feeling even if its only for 15 minutes. You can always be updated later. Take back that feeling of freedom, and enjoying the moment! I am so grateful for that barking ring tone for giving me the courage to disconnect and enjoy more UNREACHABLE MOMENTS!

Sites that inspire Gratitude

Reflections on Gratitude

This is a collection of famous quotes on gratitude. Old quotes of the week will be archived here.

"It is essential to learn to enjoy life. It really does not make sense to go through the motions of existence if one does not appreciate as much of it as possible." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Author of "Flow"

"For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sent." - Ralph Waldo Emerson - writer

"When we develop a right attitude of compassion and gratitude, we take a giant step towards solving our personal and international problems." - H.H. Dalai Lama, Tibetan Spiritual Leader

"There are two ways to live your life. One is though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein, Physicist"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly, that just to be alive is a grand thing." - Agatha Christie, English Writer

"We need to make our thanks personal, real and specific, so we can continuously remind ourselves that we've been given so much more than we deserve." - Rabbi Marc Gellman, God Squad Columnist

"Let's be grateful for those who give us happiness; they are the charming gardeners who make our soul bloom." - Marcel Proust, Philosopher

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have." - Frederick Koenig, Inventor